


Projection

by MayMilk



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Angst, Dib Being an Asshole (Invader Zim), Gen, PAKs can project dreams like pearl from SU, Pre-Friendship, Rain, ZaDr, almost an AU, and Zim doesn't wants Dib to aknowledge how much he is important, but he does, dib doesn't knows how much he really cares about Zim, dib is bad at feelings, dib thinks that he shouldn't care about Zim, mildly hurt/comfort, sleepover, they're both dumb, zim is bad at feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-27
Updated: 2020-01-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22439767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MayMilk/pseuds/MayMilk
Summary: After having an annoying alien stuck on his house because of the weather, Dib discorvers a new interesting PAK function.OrThe PAK can project Zim's dreams(Like Pearl from Steven Universe)
Relationships: Dib & Zim (Invader Zim), Dib/Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 192





	Projection

**Author's Note:**

> Well, you guys could say I worked fast on this one, considering I posted my another fanfic less than a week before, but I already had most of this complete. I just needed to finish.
> 
> This fanfic is more Angsty and less romantic (which is a little bit on contrast with all the other works I did so far) but honestly I wanted to change the pace a little bit before doing more romantic stuff again. And Dib is more of a jerk on this one. 
> 
> Hope you guys like it, and sorry for any typos or grammar mistakes.

The sound of someone knocking hard on the door got the attention from Dib, who was on the living room watching one more episode of Mysterious Mysteries before going to sleep, when suddenly he was interrupted by the sound of someone on the door. The teen didn’t even moved from his place on the couch at first, hoping that whatever who was there would either go away, or someone else on the house would do this task and open the door.

Unfortunately, the person outside kept slamming on the door, and the noise was starting to disturb his moment, so Dib let out a really frustrated moan as he got his antisocial ass out of the couch and went to the door, cursing on a low voice whoever decided to knock in this late on the night. He was already grasping the door knob when he heard.

“LET ZIM ENTER! NOW” The tiny green alien shouted from outside. 

“Zim?” Dib asked surprised, but he didn’t opened the door “What are you doing here?”

“DOESN’T MATTER! OPEN THE DOOR!” The irken demanded on a desperate voice “IT’S RAINING, AND ZIM IS NOT GOING TO DIE FROM A STUPID EARTH WEATHER!” 

Dib stopped, glancing to the closest window on the room, and noticing that yes, it was starting to rain. But, instead of letting Zim in, he only smiled a sadistic grin. “Oh yeah? Let me guess. You were trying to do some of your world domination plans, and then started raining, and  _ my house _ was the closest place to hide?” 

“YES, YOU GOT IT! NOW LET ZIM IN!!” The irken said, and Dib could even imagine the panic from the way his voice was trembling. He heard a little pained noises, so he could guess the rain was starting to get into the invader.

“Actually, no” Dib said happily, couldn't help a sadistic grin spreading through his face “Have fun burning, space boy!” He teased, turning back at returning to his own comfortable seat on the couch and finish watching the episode of his favorite show, with now the satisfaction Zim was suffering out there. 

At least that was the plan until…

**CRASH**

Dib looked back in shock, just in time to see his nemesis breaking the nearest window and jumping inside, running far away from the water, hissing both from anger, fear and pain of the liquid burning his skin.

The dark haired boy stared at him incredulous and angry. Z“YOU JUST BROKE THE WINDOW!” He exclaimed, looking around nervously, trying to see if there was something near to close it before the rain mess the things inside. Zim stared at him like he was mad for being so dramatic over a WINDOW when he was the one with a skin under practically acid. He opened his mouth ready to complain but...

“What is happening here?” The voice of Membrane made Dib look back and find his father, who apparently leaved his personal lab after all the noise.

“He broke the window” Dib screamed pointing angrily at Zim. 

“And you were going to leave Zim to DIE!” The alien shouted on accusatory tone, pointing at Dib with such a betrayed look on his eyes.

“I wasn’t” It was a lie, but not that it really mattered “I-I was just joking with him” He smiled fakely on a try to justify himself. But, truly, he didn’t really felt like he needed it, considering the fact that he was dealing with his arch enemy, an evil alien who was trying to conquer earth, and he was the hero. He could just let Zim to suffer without any problems, right?

“YOU LIE” Zim accused, and he was actually right this time, but the human wasn’t going to acknowledge him about it. He opened his mouth, ready to respond to the invader when Membrane intervened, putting his hands over both of their heads and patting it.

“Boys, boys, you see, there is no need to cry over a broken window” He said, passing by them and walking towards the window, which was letting the rain in “Now son, go and take some dry clothes to your friend while I fix this problem!”

“What? But he is not my friend” Dib shouted, but unfortunately his dad wasn’t even listening anymore. 

“You heard your parental figure, Dib-beast!” Zim said with a teasing smug on his face “Make your  _ friend _ happy” Dib grit his teeth with frustration before angrily holding the alien’s wrist and start pulling him into his room, mentally cursing on the way. He practically ran on the stairs, ignoring the alien’s complains about him walking too fast.

Soon after entering the bedroom and closing the door, the teen quickly searched for a towel and simply tossed it into the invader’s face. “Here” he said “This i’ll do it”.

Zim grunted a little bit unpleasant by the way the human was acting so harsh with him and then started to use the towel to try dry himself, soon removing his wig, considering it was pretty wet too. After that he decided to take off his lenses too, as they were pretty uncomfortable and he was already without his disguise.

"You know I could easily take a picture right now" Dib teased, but a little bit surprised by how easily his enemy took off his disguise in front of him, even if they were both alone on his room. 

"The wig was  _ burning! _ " Zim hissed, putting a lot of emphasis on the last word as he rubbed the towel on the top of his head, being careful with his antennas. His wig wasn't waterproof yet, different from the upgrade the invader had done on his own clothes a couple of years ago, after realizing that the polluted water in earth worked like acid on him "And even if you DO take a picture, I can always destroy the evidence later!" He waved his hand arrogantly at his nemesis. 

"Yeah, whatever" Dib rolled his eyes while sitting on his bed "What you were doing here anyway?" He questioned, observing the invader curiously.

"None of your business" The alien said. Dib eyes him cautiously, but decided not to press too much further. If it was some evil plan he would find out sooner or later anyway. 

"Okay, but, why even come  _ here _ when it started raining?" Dib asked suspiciously "It would be way more easier to just invade another house instead coming to your enemy" the teen said, making Zim stare back at him with the towel placed around his neck "Are you trying to, I don't know, kill me on my sleep, poison my food or something?" 

"What?" The invader cringed. He looked almost hurt by the accusation. But that was impossible, right? He is just an  _ emotionless cruel alien _ . There is no way he could feel  _ bad  _ for such statement, right? "Zim would never get rid of the Dib-Beast on such BORING way" He soon said it quickly, turning his head away so Dib couldn't see the expression he was doing right now 

"You still didn't explained why you came HERE" The human pressed further, still wanting a proper answer. But, somehow, the question itself seemed to piss off the invader, who quickly stared back at him, and walked a feel angry steps towards the teen.

"Listen here, DIB" Zim said, getting inches away from his nemesis. The fact that the human was sitting on the bed made the eye contact pretty much easier as the invader didn't had to look up this time "I don't trust you! I don't like you! You're my enemy and remotely ENJOYING your company would be FILTHY, DISGUSTING and WRONG!" He said, poking with his claws on the teen's chest "So, STOP MAKING QUESTIONS!" 

Even if he was a little bit intimidated by the way the big magenta eyes were observing him so closely and with so much intensity, Dib couldn't help but feel even more confused. Where did it all came from?

"Sure…" The teen said uncertainty, lightly shoving away Zim's hand from his chest "But wh-"

"NO MORE QUESTIONS" The invader repeated, pointing dramatically with his finger at the human's face, making him lean back, raising his hands on defeat. 

"Okay, okay, fine" Dib rolled his eyes "But as soon the rain is over, you're out!"

"That's not like I wanted to spent any more second with you, Dib-Stink" Zim said harshly, putting a lot of emphasis on the insult. 

"It's not like this is going to last too long, anyway" Dib muttered to himself, hopefully.

***

"Fan-fucking-tastic" Dib said drily and frustrated as he observed his father talking with Zim on the bedroom's door. 

"Did you already informed your parental figures that you're staying overnight?" Membrane asked carefully, receiving a nod from the alien.

"Yes, yes" Zim said. They wasn't totally truth, after all, his roboparents wouldn't really mind. But the invader did called GIR to inform he couldn't come home tonight. 

"Does he really have to stay?" Dib said with a really unpleasant and stressed moan coming out of his mouth. 

"Of course!" Membrane replied staring back at his son "It's not very nice to let your friend be out there with such a bad weather! Specially when he have a poor skin condition like this" he shook his head, placing a hand over the alien's head, who already put his disguise back. 

"He doesn't have a skin condition!" Dib shouted gritting his teeth "He is an alien!"

"Of course, of course" Membrane said, clearly not believing his son "Now go to sleep, boys. You both have school tomorrow!" He said releasing Zim as he stepped out of the room after turning off the light, closing the door on his way out. 

The teen let out a deep sigh, watching his rival laying down on the mattress that was earlier placed on the floor of his room. His PAK practically glowed on the dark, so it wasn't really hard to see him.

"I still can't believe he just let you stay" Dib grumbled, saying out loud more as an thought to himself than something he actually wanted to share with Zim. 

"Shut up, human" The invader replied "Zim is as much unpleasant by this situation as the Dib-Stink" he said grumpy as he laid with his belly on the mattress, hugging the pillow below his head. 

"Oh yeah?" Dib asked incredulous "Because you look waaaay too comfortable with this" He said narrowing his eyes at Zim, who not only borrowed one of Dib's old pajamas, but also ruined it completely by making hole on it's the back to attach his PAK. 

"It was YOUR father figure who insisted for giving your extremely inferious and DIRTY human clothes" Zim said pretty much disgust, slightly tugging the fabric of the pajama between his fingers. 

Even if he was saying those harsh words Dib sweared he could see a blush on Zim's face? No. Of course not, right? Probably he was just tired and the dark light was playing illusions on his head. 

"Fine, whatever" Dib muttered while taking off his glasses and putting them on the little table near the bed "Just… Don't put any bees or whatever evil thing you have there on me".

Zim watched confused as the human turned away, with his back facing the invader. "Eh, human" He said, getting up on his knees and looking at the teen "What are you doing?" He asked curiously, pacing his hands on the surface of the bed.

"I am trying to sleep" Dib responded drily without looking at his rival, hoping Zim would just let him alone and be quiet. 

"Heh? The human recharging thing?" The irken asked lifting an inexistent eyebrow and tilted his head to the side. 

"Yeah, yeah" Dib said pretty much annoyed. He was already pretty pissed by the fact that not only his mortal was trapped inside his house, but also his father, once again, didn't listened to him and treated Zim like he was just a "school friend", putting him to sleep on the teen's room and giving him clean clothes. After all Dib was really frustrated and tired "Now be quiet" He demanded.

The teen heard the sound of the invader getting on his place again and smiled slightly, thinking that maybe he could just rest and let his problems be temporarily vanished on his dreams. 

But unfortunately, when he was on the edge of falling asleep, Zim decided that he had to talk again.

"Hey, Dib-thing" He said, making Dib growl pretty tired and annoyed "I am bored"

"Ugh, Zim…" The paranormal investigator muttered "Just fucking go to sleep, okay?" He practically begged, sinking his gave further on the pillow.

"I DON'T NEED TO SLEEP! I AM ZIM! THE FINEST IRKEN INVADER!!I" Dib didn't have to look to know that his rival probably stood up with a really dramatic pose with all his shouting "But, eh… How exactly do you do it?" He asked a little bit insecure "Not that I NEED your help or that I'll do it" Zim quickly added after, pretty much embarrassed. 

This time Dib actually changed his position so he could face the alien, seeing that he was sitting and staring at him with his fake contact lenses. With a deep sigh, the paranormal investigator tried to explain. 

“Lay down” He said, and surprisingly the invader complied, laying on his belly so his PAK couldn’t bother him “Close your eyes” This time Zim hesitated to do, giving Dib a dubious look before shrugging and doing it. “Relax and be quiet. Eventually you’ll get to it” And then he started to let himself try to sleep again. 

Maybe he gave too much credit to the invader and hoped he wouldn’t disturb him again, but soon he heard Zim talking with his annoying pitched voice again “This is not working”

“Ugh, Zim, whatever” Dib grunted “Just shut up, okay?”

“But-”

“SHUT UP!” Dib shouted irritated. He thought Zim would complain, but this time the invader actually went silent and then FINALLY the teen could rest himself and sleep.

\-----

At first, there was a light, and then some strange little voices that brought Dib back from his sleep, making him blink frustrated, grabbing his glasses and sitting up pretty pissed off, ready to kick Zim out of his house, with a good weather or not. 

But then when he looked down he noticed not that was  _ asleep _ , which Dib considered such a bold move to do on his  _ enemy's _ house. Yeah, Dib did slept on front of Zim, but… That was different… Dib certainly wasn't trustable enough to Zim put his guard down like that. The thought maybe would make him feel guilty, but all of that was shoved aside because of the thing that was getting his attention.

Pink lights emerged from all the holes in the PAK, making a holographic projection above the alien's back. 

"Wow… That's pretty cool" Dib muttered to himself excited, quickly searching for his phone to take a couple of photos from whatever this was. when he reached his mobile device he heard some strange noise, like it was a voice speaking on a radio or something.

“ _ Eh?”  _ The high pitched voice that Dib easily recognized as Zim came out of the PAK’s projection, making the human stare at it even more curious, noticing the image forming there was actually a first person point of view. 

At this point the teen was already pointing his phone camera at the holographic image and filming it, trying to came up with a feel theories about what exactly was he seeing. “Maybe it’s like his dreams or something” He thought out loud, frowning as he analyzed the image. 

Looked like Zim, in the dream or whatever, was on some kind of stage, in front of a whole crowd of what Dib could recognize as other irkens.They looked like they were cheering for something. Zim looked back and found his leaders right behind him, letting out a loud gasp that was even repeated by the  _ real _ Zim somnambulantly sleeping. 

_ “M-My tallest” _ The image moved on a angle that made Dib guess the invader was making a reverence  _ “W-What is happening? _ ” Dream Zim asked, looking around with a pretty much confused tone of voice.

_ “Oh Zim, don’t you know? _ ” One of the leaders asked. Dib knew they were differenced by the colors, but the fact that the dream was showing up on only pinkish colors made really difficult to tell them apart “We are here to celebrate your victory!” 

_ “Z-Zim’s victory? _ ” Zim asked less cautious than before and actually sounding excited. 

_ “Yes, Zim” _ The other taller one said “ _ You, or favorite and most competent invader conquered the earth!” _ He said on a cheerful tone “ _ Everyone is here to celebrate!”  _

Zim’s vision looked back at the crowd, and Dib wished he could actually see what kind of expression he was doing right now. With an attempted act he looked down at the sleepy Zim next to him, noticing he looked, at least, happy, grinning as he hugged his pillow below his head. 

“ _ This is all for me? _ ” Zim asked excitedly  _ “Everyone is here for ZIM? _ " 

" _ Of course! We all love you Zim _ !" One of the tallest spoke as the invader walked closer to the edge of the stage with every irken looking at him on a praising way. 

"O- _ Of course you all do! Why wouldn't _ ?" Zim said proudly, and Dib could easily see the little grin spreading on his sleepy face " _ I AM ZIM! The BEST invader on Irk, or better… ON THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE!"  _ He shouted, and the whole crowd cheered him.

Dib rolled his eyes. Oh yeah, he kinda of expected for the dream to come into that. It was almost funny how much self indulgent Zim could be even with his dreams. 

" _ ZIM!! _ " A random irken close to the stage shouted  _ "PLEASE AUTOGRAPH MY FACE!!"  _

" _ NO, AUTOGRAPH MY PAK!!!"  _ Other one begged. 

" _ WRITE ON MY EYE IMPLANT!"  _ Other Irken requested, taking his eye out of his face on a way Dob could only thing that was gross and interesting at the same time. 

" _ Eh…"  _ Zim hesitated as the requests continued  _ "There is too many. This is so much work. I'll just ask GIR for do It for me-" _ He stopped, a s Dib frowned as Zim quickly looked back at his tallests " _ M-My tallest" _ Even if his voice was still submissive  _ for _ his leader, somehow now it sounded really concerned " _ W-Where is GIR and Minimoose?" _

" _ Don't worry _ " One of the tallest said waving his hand " _ They are doing your work and giving autographs, look!"  _ He pointed and Zim looked back again, noticing both of his robots waving at him from the crowd, proceeding to continue to give attention to the other irkens begging for autographs. 

" _ Oh _ " Dib was gotten by surprise when he heard real life Zim deep sighing in relief. He frowned a little bit curious as he looked at the sleepy alien. He knew he was pretty close to his minions, but he didn't expect tobe so worried about them.

But soon, something snapped on Zim. His vision darted away from Gir and Minimoose, and then started looking around, searching for  _ something _ , focusing on the crowd, on and then on the back of the stage, until he gulped, looking carefully at his leaders.

" _ M-My tallest?" _ Zim asked uncertain, and the teen stared at the image pretty confused about what was wrong " _ Where is the Dib _ ?" The question definitely got the paranormal investigator unprepared. He blinked surprised, quickly glancing at the real Zim and then at the dream projection again. 

" _ Who?"  _

_ "M-My enemy, the earth monkey with big head who was trying to stop Zim from conquering earth!"  _ The invader explained. Dib rolled his eyes. Even on his dreams the invader always found a way to insult him. 

" _ Oh yeah, that alien thing you talked about…"  _ The tallest rubbed his chin thoughtfully. 

" _ Yes! That's him!" _ Zim said really quickly " _ WHERE is him?"  _ He asked again, and Dib couldn't help but feel himself being really inquiet and curious to see how it is going to turn out. 

_ "Oh, don't you remember? You killed him _ " 

" _ WHAT? _ " The surprise on Zim's voice was actually unexpected, and Dib stared at him extremely confused.

" _ Yeah, you conquered de earth, remember? You totally killed him in the process"  _ The other tallest said simply. 

" _ W-What, no, Zim wouldn't-"  _ Zim muttered with a tremble voice. 

"My ass you wouldn't" Dib said out loud. He didn't believed on what he was seeing. He just couldn't "I would do it, why the fuck you wouldn't?" He asked, having only the anguish face of the asleep irken. He clenched his teeth, feeling a sudden anger emerging on him as he continued to watch the dream. 

_ "But you you did killed him. With all the rest of the planet too"  _ The tallest insisted, not even noticing how upset Zim sounded. 

Dib noticed the pace of the dream starting to change. What before looked like cheerful and happy suddenly seemed dark. The tallest with they slender figures seemed, at least, intimidating. 

" _ No… But… That's not Zim's plans"  _ The alien said desperated  _ "Zim would bring the human…" _

__ "WHAT?" Dib asked extremely surprised by the information. At this point he wasn't even paying attention so see if his camera was on the right angle to continue the recording, he was just staring at Zim's dream in shock, totally froze in place.

_ "But you know, even if you brought him here, we wouldn't let you keep him _ " One of the Zim's leaders said.

" _ Yeah, you know, even if you're our best invader we could not allow it _ " The other one added.

" _ NO! I AM ZIM! I should be allowed to HAVE HIM!”  _ Zim shouted on a extremely desperate tone, like he was on edge of falling apart. 

“ _ Why are you so insistent on keeping a strange alien with you?”  _ This time Dib couldn't even  _ see _ the tallests, considering that Zim's vision was getting blurry " _ You don't want us to think you're  _ defective, _ right? _ " 

" _ NO NO _ !" He screamed, curling himself in the ground " _ I AM NOT DEFECTIVE!" _ He cried on a high pitched scream." _ AND  _ HE _ CAN'T BE DEAD! HE CAN’T” _

__ Dib didn’t know what to do on a time like this. What was he supposed to get out of it, and WHY he was feeling so  _ pity _ for ZIM? The human felt such a anger boiling on him. He shouldn’t feel bad for that  _ stupid _ alien! He was his  _ enemy _ , afterall. But still, he couldn’t help but think how sorry he felt for Zim right now.

“No…” Zim’s voice suddenly got his attention. At first Dib thought it was only on the dream, but as soon as he repeated it again, e noticed the sound didn’t came only from the projection, but also from Zim sleeping right there.

When the teen finally took his vision away from the projection, he felt a knot forming on his stomach. Zim was  _ shaking _ . Heavy and wet tears rolled down into his cheeks, making his pillow get all wet. His breath was irregular because of a lot of sobbing and hiccups, repeating over and over again “No no no no”

And with that Dib couldn’t just stay quiet and watch. He quickly jumped out of his bed and layed on top of the invader, rolling him so he was with his back against the mattress. Dib held Zim firmly and shook him.

“Zim! Wake up” He said. Even if Zim was an invader, even if he was Dib’s worst enemy, even if he already put him on real mortal damage situations, Dib couldn’t just let him like that. Even if he was pretty with the alien, and tried to maintain apathetic when talking about Zim, a little part of him, which the teen desperate tried to shove away, cared deeply about the irken.

“ZIM” He shouted again, and this time the irken let his eyes wide open, his whole body spamed as he quickly wake up. His wig was all messy on the top of his head, letting out one antenna slip out, and his fake lenses seemed a little more transparent from the tears, making his magenta eyes easily visible behind it.

“W-What-” He trailed of with a unsteady breath, clearly confused about what happening, looking around completely lost. His eyes focused on the teen above his again, which was sitting on his lap and had a firm grip on his shoulders. 

Dib opened his mouth, he didn’t even knew what he was going to say, if he was going to apologize or come up with an excuse, but soon he was surprised when Zim quickly sat up and hug him, burying his face into the human’s chest. 

Dib stared at Zim in shock, with a strange feeling rising on his chest as he heard muffled sobs against the fabric of his pijama, with Zim holding on him like he could vanish on any minute. The teen didn’t said anything or moved any muscle. He didn’t even know  _ how _ even react to that. So, he just waited.

Slowly, Zim’s breath came into a stable rhythm, his shoulders relaxed, he eased his hug around Dib, and stopped shaking. Dib heard a long sigh, which could be a sign that Zim was stopping his cry too.

And soon Zim stopped for a moment, noticing the position he was and quickly placed both of his hands over the teen’s chest and pushed him away with all strength he had.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH ZIM?” The irken asked. All his insecurance, despair and dependency were suddenly replaced by rage, confusion and a feeling of betrayal. 

"Geez, I did nothing" Dib hissed back, his concern being easily muffled by annoyance the instant the irken abruptly shove him away. The irken examined him carefully, obviously don't trusting Dib's words. 

"YOU LIE!" Zim shouted, pointing with his finger at the human "YOU FORCED MY AMAZING BRAIN INTO SOME KINDA OF SIMULATION AND-"

"IT WAS A DREAM" Dib said firmly. He wanted to point out that, while he haven't done anything that the alien was saying, Zim DID put him into a simulation before. "You were just dreaming and I felt pitiful enough to wake you up, asshole" He grunted, getting up and back to his own bed pretty frustrated.

"Oh" The irken cooled down before processing the human's words and looking back at him pretty offended "Hey, Zim don't needs you pathetic  _ pity _ , stupid big sized head human!"

Dib rubbed the space between his eyes pretty frustrated and tired " _ Fine _ , next time I'll just let you cry and have your stupid nightmare or something"

" _ FINE _ , I don't need  _ your _ help anyway!" Zim retorted. Dib wanted to argue back, talk about how the alien actually seemed to  _ need _ Din on his dream, but in the end the human just bit his own tongue, deciding that, if Zim probably didn't even knew what dreaming was, he didn't know about the projecting his PAK could do, and taking about it wasn't going to be a good idea.

"It stopped raining" He just said after a while, and Zim stared back at the window, doing a little 'oh' in acknowledgment. "You can, uh, put your uniform back in the bathroom" Dib muttered awkwardly, noticing the irken was still using his borrowed pijamas. 

"Oh, of course" Zim muttered, walking towards the bedroom's door "I'll do it" He said quickly, closing the door after leaving the room.

\---

Zim didn't took too much time before changing back to his same old outfit and coming back to Dib's room.

"I am leaving" The irken announced as he entered the bedroom, catchinghing Dib's attention.

The teen has used the time alone to clear his thoughts about the invader, and was a little bit insecure of what to do next. After noticing how much Zim would miss him if he was gone, he questioned himself what would  _ he _ do if the invader went missing. 

Well, after years fighting Zim, Dib couldn’t find himself on a future  _ without _ Zim. Even if the realisation annoyed him to his core, he found himself on a situation where he couldn’t push away and bury deep down his dependency about Zim. It didn’t mean exactly he  _ liked _ the invader, but, for sure, he would be lying if he said he didn’t care, even if he tried his best not to. 

"You can go through the front door" Dib said cautiously as he watched Zim climbing into his bed and reaching to the window.

“NONSENSE!” Zim shouted “I AM ZIM! I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING!” He stared at Dib with a proud and arrogant look on his face.

“Geez, fine” Dib rolled his eyes. What was up with Zim and windows anyway? It wasn’t so hard to enter and leave someone’s house like a normal person… Except Zim wasn’t really a normal person. With this thought, Dib looked at the alien again, noticing that the invader didn’t really leaved yet, but he was quiet on the place, staring at Dib. “What?”

"That touching and hugging thing never happened, do you hear me,  _ Dib?”  _ Zim hissed awkwardly, and this time the teen could clearly spot a little bit of purple growing on his face.

"What hugging?" He asked, with a little grin. Unfortunately, Zim didn't seemed to understand the little joke, and stared at Dib in confusion.

"Eh? Did you hit your gigantic head hard or something to  _ already  _ forget about it?" Zim asked, frowning at the human.

"What? No-" Dib rolled his eyes "Just forget it, okay?" He grumbled. The irken only shrugged, snapping the window open. 

"Anyhow, I have to go and make sure GIR didn't burned the whole base down" He said, already ready to jump, but, before doing the action, the teen held his hand. 

The irken tried to stare at him with annoyance, but the look he gave was merely confused and flustered. Dib bit his lip, trying to figure out what to say. He kinda wanted to talk about what happened in the dream, but he didn't wanted to reveal what he actually saw.

"Do you want to tell me anything?" He asked cautiously. Zim opened his mouth, surprised by the offer, and for a moment looked like he was actually considering  _ talking _ with Dib, but soon he snapped, taking back his hand and shaking his head. 

"WHY Zim would have  _ anything _ to tell a smelly human like you?" He hissed, and Dib did his best to contain a sigh of disappointment. 

“Whatever” Dib looked away, aware of how Zim stared at him, trying to solve the teen’s actions like he was some kind of puzzle.”Just, take care” The human was acting  _ weird _ . A couple of hours before he was threatening Zim and practically leaving him to suffer in the rain, and  _ now _ he wanted to  _ talk _ and say things like  _ take care _ ? That was odd. 

“See you at skool, Dib-stink” That’s all Zim said, pushing away his thoughts and jumping out on the window. Dib observed him go, watching the pink lights from his PAK slowly being covered by the darkness of the night. 

Dib sighed, reaching back at his phone, looking over the record of all the projection he had filmed, and, cursing himself, deleted the evidence of the file.

**Author's Note:**

> That's it! 
> 
> God, it was so self indulgent on a lot of parts lmao.


End file.
